The Techno legend welcomes Arturia in his boat studio in Amsterdam to tell you what he thinks about MiniBrute

About Clarke:

Educated at Brighton College, Clarke ran away from home at the age of 16 after his parents split up. After briefly sleeping rough, a friend offered him temporary accommodation. All that kept him going was his love for music, initially hip hop and post-punk (The Damned are a favourite of his to this day)and the money from his job in a shoe shop.His success as a DJ began with a residency at the Brighton nightclub Toppers.

In the late 1980s, Clarke used to write reviews for UK magazines such as Mixmag Update, Generator and ID, and was the first to review Aphex Twin.

In the 1990s, he began producing and releasing music using the moniker Hardcore. This project was subsequently licensed to the Belgian label R&S, enabling Clarke to be one of the first UK artists to record in the R&S studio in Ghent, and sign to the label.After this he recorded under various guises, including Graphite and Fly by Wire, but in 1993 he dropped these names and recorded only under Dave Clarke. Recognition of his talent came in 1994 when a series of EPs with the collective name of Red and his debut album Archive One received rave reviews, as they were seen as being innovative and crossing genres, something not common in the techno scene at the time.After the success of the Red series, John Peel gave Clarke his moniker, ‘The Baron of Techno’, which has stuck with him ever since.

Clarke’s sense of rhythm and DJ skills have earned him the respect of his peers – he is mentioned as an influence on the 1997 Daft Punk song “Teachers”. He has a longstanding relationship with visceral, intense techno, and is considered one of the innovators of the genre, even being used as a musical reference point in the German school syllabus.Clarke’s DJ style consists of virtuoso cutting and scratching during his predominantly techno sets (although he sometimes plays electro and even other genres). His style is showcased on two mix albums World Service and World Service 2; the former was voted #9 in the Resident Advisor poll of best mix albums of the 2000s. His album Devil’s Advocate, released in 2003, is a mixture of techno and hip hop featuring Chicks on Speed and DJ Rush. He also made an experimental John Peel Sessions EP under the name ‘Directional Force’ on the Strange Fruit label.

Clarke relocated to Amsterdam in 2008 and has become a key player in the annual Amsterdam dance event. He is a regular DJ presence at top global clubs such as Fabric in London, Berghain in Berlin, and Fuse in Brussels. He has also played a wide range of festivals including Glastonbury,Pukkelpop, and I Love Techno, as well as curating his own successful stage at Tomorrowland in Belgium since 2012.

I’m not a big fan of covers, but one of the factory sequences loaded into the MicroBrute is reminiscent of Les Chants Magnetiques Pt. IV by Jean Michel Jarre and it’s only appropriate to do a quick demo of a couple of French synthesizers with a French composer/synthesist’s song. I’ve got the MicroBrute running through the Strymon TimeLine (dTape mode, of course) and the MiniBrute running through the Big Sky (Cloud mode). Apologies for the sloppy playing, it’s not easy to play with a tripod right up next to you.

Finally checking out the awesome little analog synthesizer from Arturia called the MiniBrute. This is a fully analog synthesizer with a Steiner-Parker filter, CV in/out, MIDI, and USB, all in a nice 25 key aluminium case.

It’s a budget monophonic synthesizer smackdown: How does the new Korg MS-20 Mini compare against the Arturia Minibrute? A veiny arm takes you through the oscillators of these beasts to see just how similar / different they are.

I made the video as a scientific response to the bevy of forum discussions and questions regarding the two. For those in the market for a budget monosynth but only wish to buy one, I hope the video can remove some of the subjectivity and let the listener determine what sounds better to them. No audio editing or effects were added to the raw sound.